Silica mine, January '09

The silica mine closed recently with the loss of a dozen jobs due to dwindling demand and cheap imported silica. It was originally opened to supply high-quality silica sand for lens optics during the war. The complex contains almost 29 miiles of tunnels, and I've barely scratched the surface in my two visits.




The crushed remains of an Austin Allegro!


Some of the mine is beach-like after the floods




My dog Molly kept getting in my shots. Cheers!


Austin A-series engine


Back of an Austin A30


The original mine


Mine cart

Thats ace! Hard roock mines are lovely and you did a great job on the photos. Hope Molly had a hard hat and caplamp

Good and Smart

Hi Lost - great set of images there. You mentioned flooding - were the tunnels flooded intentionally or was it weather related...?

Just weather related, it's pretty dry in there for the most part

This is one cracking site I'd love to visit at some point.

That looks like a great mine. Groovy